Essential

I must say I had an impulse to tell KL the Hospital Authority had a little publication "Handbook of Internal Medicine", in which a chapter lists all procedures to be covered.

But I didn't. On a second thought I was not sure what procedures were essential - in its very literal meaning. After all, our extra-terrestrial friends always emphasis that internship is part of the training; house officers should not be considered independent, and all procedures should be performed under supervision. Although it is the good intention of our educationalists that we should aim to have graduates becoming competent house officers, in reality, the receiving end neither expect nor require such a quality.

And, sitting through the examiners' meeting of our final examination for all these years, I could name a few dozens of candidates who were deficient in many aspects of the basic knowledge and capable of no procedure - but they passed, by the skin of their teeth, because of a very prerequisite: They should be advised not to take up a clinical job.

In other words, all those essential things are not that essential if you decide to get the name of MBChB (or MBBS) and not practising.